The Best of the Best Documentaries of 2013 Lists List

It was a good year for documentaries. Maybe we say that every year, but 2013 felt particularly strong. How can anyone keep track of all the excellent non-fiction films you need to see (and check off the ones you’ve already seen)? By using this handy-dandy List of the Lists, as it were. We’ve collected many of our favorite Best of 2013 lists here, but do go to the individual pages linked here for each writer/writers’ detailed recap of each film and list. (And if we missed any other good ones, feel free to add in the comments.)

And because we can’t help ourselves, we’ve bolded and noted any documentary that is an Independent Lens film.

10. Sound City 9. The Act of Killing 8. The Armstrong Lie 7. Room 237 6. A Band Called Death 5. Salinger 4. Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker 3. Stories We Tell 2. Twenty Feet From Stardom 1. The Institute

See also Robert Greene’s extensive list for the BFI (British Film Institute)’s Sight & Sound: The best of 2013 in cinematic nonfiction. It’s a terrific and provocative list that goes off the beaten path in a few places (in more loosely defining the term “documentary”).

’Til Madness Do Us Part

Computer Chess

Our Nixon

Tina Delivers a Goat / Declaration of War / Lost Village: the Dark Side / A Story for the Modlins [short films]

Let the Fire Burn

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

The Kill Team [airs on Independent Lens Fall ’14]

Bad Grandpa (!)

YouTube Cinema

The Expedition to the End of the World

Cutie and the Boxer

At Berkeley

SickF—people

Big Men

Caucus

The Square

Winter Go Away

Manakamana

Pablo’s Winter

Stories We Tell

12 O’Clock Boys

Museum Hours

Sleepless Nights

These Birds Walk

Massive Attack vs Adam Curtis

The Last Station

The Act of Killing

And here’s our (okay, this writer’s) own picks for 5 best documentaries of the year, recusing myself from any Independent Lens films (though I sure wish someone above had thought to put Medora on their list). In order:Stories We Tell, The Act of Killing, The Square, First Cousin Once Removed, After Tiller.

How many of the films mentioned here have you seen? Be honest, and reveal it in the comments. We won’t judge, unless you haven’t seen any of them, in which case we will gently chastise you. With many of them now readily available online or via DVD, you have the technology at your disposal to catch up on what was a terrific year for documentary film.